Southern Region in bid to launch organised Malawi college chess

After the success of the revamping organised chess development in Malawian primary and secondary schools, Southern Region Chess League will soon launch the game in colleges in a bid to improve chess at all levels.

The league’s chairman Wasoka Chirwa said they are organising a special tournament on February 24 at College of Medicine in Blantyre which will be sponsored by IFUMBO.

“It was the students at College of Medicine who approached us to host this event after hearing of our plans to relaunch organised chess movement in colleges, ” Chirwa said. “So, we obliged because this will help the students to develop chess skills.

“Chess is being seriously played at primary and sedondary school level but not at college level where these players graduate to for their further studies. We are filling that gap now.”

He added that the tournament is open to all college students as well as other players affiliated to Southern Region Chess League.

The chess fraternity is in a serious bid to revitalise the sport from grassroots level by training primary and secondary school students as well as providing them with tournaments to further sharpen their skills.

One such schools’ special tournament is called Finesse Chess Championship which is sponsored by former Chess Association of Malawi (Chessam) publicity secretary Gilton Mkumbwa, who is also an international chess arbiter.

And there is a newly-launched championship called S & S Geniuses, which is sponsored by one of the country’s great female chessplayers, Susan Musa Namangale — in conjunction with renowned Malawian writer and newspaper columnist Stanley Onjezani Kenani.

This tournament was inaugurated on February 3 at St. Andrews International High School and plans are underway to take it to the Northen Region where the sport is dormant at grassroots level.

Prizes to winners are chess related such as chess sets, clocks and medals and the targetted participants are Under-12 players and senior boys and senior girls.